Opinion: Bigelow: Torture Has Its Uses

1/18/2013 3:58PM

Assistant books editor Sohrab Ahmari on "Zero Dark Thirty" director Kathryn Bigelow's defense of her decision to present torture in the film's narrative of how the U.S. ran down and killed Osama Bin Laden.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... I ... words can one know it's ... target has ... a walk back to Opinion Journal why Mary Kissel with a Wall Street Journal editorial page ... you're looking at scenes from zero Dark thirty ... a remarkable film by Kathryn Bigelow ... that actually shows how the uses of enhanced interrogation techniques ... my plan to bring did lead to the capture ... and the killing of Osama bin Leyden ... Sabha Maree joins me now from our book sections are on ... um ... it's ... a chummy place out there in Hollywood ... of purpose Bigelow that seems to stand up and say that these techniques are ... useful ... on the second she explained ... while she she released a statement yesterday after a long period of silence where ... through this period he had ... you know ... Senate Democrats and ... John McCain as our eyes are on editorial quoted John McCain from the state of John McCain ... aam where we were hammering her saying what you're doing is justifying torture some of the language on on on muffling outlets was ... really really harsh on him she finally been released a statement saying look I want to capture the full moral complexity of what it took to bring aam although some of the modern ... suggests this ... and and and and that involved in the second part the use of enhanced interrogation techniques ... and to give a sense of her own politics she says ... so fans should call the torture ... Greysheet editions EITC says Richard Christie said look I'm on the filmmaker I'm a serious person ... than on the call a legacy of it and that's that's how she thought I'm a filmmaker and a serious person ... Dish and I'm paraphrasing ... well ... that's not and that's an unusual thing to care for is that anyone in Hollywood filmmaker serious person ... she also said that ... she was lucky to find studio partners with the courage to release it ... on how unusual is it for a big movie studio to me ... on a pro C I a or ... a pro interventionist ... that's not I mean I think it is an amazing outcome ... and in lesser hands than hers and again you can disagree with their own Pursell puppets for the mass of lesser hands in hers ... you would have a movie that say if it was all I get to some of the day that where ... there would be you know a scene at the beginning showing how it you know the nine eleven was actually the product of years of American imperialism ... and and how that the terrorists are actually very sweet to the multiple wives and saw the software ... but that the movie where it begins in a very stark way with September eleventh and there's no attempt to humanize ... the other side is actually pretty room are still well this is so important so because we all want to consider movie theaters eat popcorn and that's part of our information like your watch that ... people watching the daily shows that it's a news program is that what its members ... in the incarnate in part because a decade since a little more than a decade since nine eleven ... the conversation about what we did ... and you know it the the the moral ... righteousness of of the war on terror is still an ensemble question it's an open question and so ... this was a mean the ... serious addition to the tothe national dialogue now they can put it ... in all of the Hollywood left hand and center Feinstein can put it on on ... on Kathryn Bigelow for which she did but I think she bought a lot of parity to the table ... we can have a discussion about the morality of those techniques but to say that there's there's no practically between ... in essence variation techniques ... the capture of Osama bin Leyden is really upset and so too for her to clarify the national debate that way ... is pretty pretty amazing so the next blockbuster film The how Iran really treats its citizens the China treats its Christians ... assistant books editor saw Rob Omar a ... thank you so much thanks for being with us ...